On This Day in History for March 20

Events 1 - 100 of 149

• 141 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
• 1345 Saturn, Jupiter and Mars-conjunction: thought "cause of plague epidemic"
• 1525 Paris' parliament begins pursuit of Protestants
• 1569 Duke of Alva leads "tenth penning" in Les Ponts de Cé

• 1600 The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden
• 1602 United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) forms

• 1627 France & Spain sign accord for fighting protestantism
• 1697 Willem de Vlamingh returns to Batavia after exploring "South Land"
• 1703 Akō incident: 46 of the 47 surviving Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master's death in Edo
• 1739 Iranian ruler Nadir Shah occupies Delhi in India and sacks the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne
• 1760 Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings
• 1774 The British parliament passes first of the Intolerable Acts: the Boston Port Act, which closed Boston harbor until colonists would pay for damages following the Boston Tea Party
• 1800 French army defeats Turks at Helipolis & advance to Cairo

• 1814 Prince Willem Frederik becomes monarch of Netherlands

• 1816 US Supreme Court affirms its right to review state court decisions
• 1833 US & Siam sign commercial treaty

• 1861 An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, Argentina
• 1865 2nd day of Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina
• 1865 Michigan authorizes workers' cooperatives

• 1883 Unity treaty of Paris signed: protects industrial property
• 1885 Jan Ernst Matzeliger received patent number 274,207 for his lasting machine which creates wood or stone molds of customers' feet
• 1886 1st AC power plant in US begins commercial operation in Massachusetts
• 1888 Start of the Sherlock Holmes Adventure "A Scandal in Bohemia"
• 1890 General Federation of Womens' Clubs founded

• 1896 Marines land in Nicaragua to protect US citizens
• 1896 Uprising in Matabeleland
• 1897 1st US orthodox Jewish Rabbinical seminary (RIETS) incorporates in NY
• 1897 France signs treaty with Emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia
• 1900 US Secretary of State John Hay announces that all nations to whom he sent notes calling for an 'open door' policy in China have essentially accepted his stand
• 1902 France and Russia issue a joint declaration that approves the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, but stipulates that they have the right to protect interests in China and Korea

• 1911 Winter Garden Theater opens at 1634 Broadway NYC
• 1914 1st international figure-skating tournament held in US, New Haven
• 1916 Allies attack Zeebrugge Belgium

• 1920 1st flight from London to South Africa lands (took 1½ months)
• 1920 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Theresa Weld
• 1920 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Sherwin Badger
• 1921 Upper Silesia votes for amalgamation with Germany in a plebiscite that is 63% in favor
• 1922 USS Langley is commissioned, US Navy's 1st aircraft carrier
• 1922 WIP-AM in Philadelphia PA begins radio transmissions
• 1923 Bavarian minister of interior refuses to forbid Nazi Sturm Abteilung
• 1923 Belgian Senate rejects Dutch University in Ghent
• 1924 Finnair begins scheduled flight of Helsinki-Tallinn


• 1930 Clessie Cummins sets diesel engine speed record of 129.39 kph

• 1931 Bishop Schreiber warns against national-socialism in Berlin
• 1932 Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Region in RSFSR becomes Kara-Kalpak ASSR
• 1933 Dachau the first Nazi concentration camp, is completed
• 1934 Rudolf Kuhnold demonstrates radar in Kiel Germany

• 1939 7,000 Jews flee German occupied Memel Lithuania
• 1940 Paul Reynoud becomes French premier
• 1941 Nazi-German Yugoslav pact drawn
• 1942 Convoy PQ13 departs Reykjavik Iceland to Russia

• 1942 Major German assault on Malta
• 1943 German U-384 bombed & sinks
• 1944 Bus falls off bridge into Passaic River NJ, killing 16
• 1944 Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupts
• 1945 US 70th Infantry division and 7th Armour division attack Saar
• 1947 180 tonne blue whale (record) caught in South Atlantic
• 1951 Indonesian army offensive against Darul Islam on Java
• 1951 Fujiyoshida, a city located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, in the center of the Japanese main island of Honshū is founded
• 1952 Final ratification of peace treaty restoring sovereignty to Japan by US Senate
• 1954 1st newspaper vending machine used (Columbia Pennsylvania)
• 1956 E Ochab succeeds Beirut as 1st secretary of Polish CP
• 1956 Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula (USSR) explodes
• 1956 Tunisia gains independence from France
• 1956 USSR performs nuclear test
• 1956 Union workers ended a 156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp
• 1957 Britain accepts NATO offer to mediate in Cyprus, but Greece rejects it
• 1958 50" snow across the Mason-Dixon line
• 1958 Clandestine Burasi Bizim Radio (communist) begins transmitting
• 1958 Greek Clandestine Radio (communist), Voice of Truth 1st transmission
• 1963 1st "Pop Art" exhibition (NYC)
• 1964 ESRO established, European Space Research Organization
• 1965 Venkataraghavan takes 8-72 v NZ at Delhi

• 1968 Military intervene in South-Yemen (leftist ministers resign)
• 1969 Abebe Bikila's auto-accident, near Addis Ababa
• 1971 Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark resigns in protest at what he views as a limited security response by the British government
• 1972 19 mountain climbers killed on Japan's Mount Fuji during an avalanche
• 1972 S Mansholt succeeds Malfatti as chairman of European Committee
• 1972 Donegall Street bombing: the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonate its first car bomb on Donegall Street in Belfast; four civilians, two RUC officers and a UDR soldier killed while 148 people were wounded
• 1974 "The Super Cops" directed by Gordon Parks premieres in NYC, New York
• 1976 Jevgeni Kulikov skates world record 1000m (1:15.70)
• 1976 Patricia Hearst convicted of armed robbery
• 1977 Communists and socialists win French municipal elections
• 1977 Parisians elect former PM Jacques Chirac as 1st mayor in a century

• 1979 Columbia flies on Shuttle carrier aircraft to Kennedy Space Center

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• 43 BC Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso], Roman poet (Metamorphoses)(d. 17)
• 1469 Princess Cecily of York (d. 1507)
• 1477 Jerome Emser, German theologian (d. 1527)
• 1502 Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (d. 1575)
• 1634 Balthasar Bekker, Frisian theologist (Examiner of Comets)
• 1644 Ivan Mazepa, Cossack Hetman of the Hetmanate (d. 1709)
• 1725 Abdul Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1789)
• 1728 Franciscus L Kersteman, Dutch lawyer/astrologist
• 1735 Torbern Bergman, Swedish chemist (d. 1784)
• 1737 Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, King of Thailand (d. 1809)
• 1741 Jean Antoine Houdon, French sculptor (d. 1828)
• 1750 Martinus van Marum, Dutch chemist/physicist (Homo Diluvii Testus)
• 1770 Friedrich Hölderlin, German writer (d. 1843)
• 1799 Karl August Nicander, Swedish poet (d. 1839)
• 1804 Neal Dow, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Portland, Maine (d. 1897)
• 1811 George Caleb Bingham, American politician/painter (Country Election)
• 1811 Napoleon FKJ Bonaparte II, Napoleon's son/King of Rome
• 1812 George Bibb Crittenden, Major General (Confederate Army), (d. 1880)
• 1813 Matthias Keller, German hymm writer (O Farther un High), born in Ulm, Württemberg (d. 1875)
• 1820 Alexander J Cuza, monarch of Moldavia/Wallachia/Romania
• 1823 John Echols, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1896)
• 1823 Ned Buntline, American publisher (d. 1886)
• 1825 William Nelson Rector Beall, Brigadier General (Confederate Army)
• 1826 Carel Vosmaer, Dutch art historian/poet/editor
• 1828 Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright (Peer Gynt, Hedda Gabler)
• 1830 Eugene Asa Carr, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Hamburg, New York (d. 1910)
• 1831 Solomon L. Spink, U.S. Congressman (d. 1881)
• 1834 Charles William Elliot, President of Harvard (1869-1909), born in Boston, Massachusetts
• 1836 Ferris Jacobs, Jr., American politician (d. 1886)
• 1836 Sir Edward Poynter, British painter (d. 1919)
• 1840 Illarion Pryanishnikov, Russian painter (d. 1894)

• 1856 Sir John Lavery, Irish artist (d. 1941)
• 1868 Obe Postma, Frisian poet/geography/historian (Frisian Clay Farm)
• 1870 Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, Prussian general and politician (East Africa)
• 1872 Karin Michaelis, writer
• 1874 Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (d. 1945)
• 1876 Payne Whitney, American businessman (d. 1927)
• 1879 Maud Menten, Canadian biochemist (d. 1960)
• 1882 René Coty, Le Harve France, president of France (1953-58)
• 1885 Eugen Herrigel, German philosopher/early pioneer of Zen in Europe
• 1885 Hendrik A de Fish, [Henri Pauwels], Flemish philological/sociologist
• 1888 Siegfried von Vegesack, German writer, born in Gut Blumbergshof, Latvia (d. 1974)
• 1895 Fredric Wertham, German-born psychologist (d. 1981)
• 1896 Hal Walker, director (I Married Joan), born in Ottumwa, Iowa
• 1902 Kathryn Forbes, short story writer (mama's bank account)
• 1904 B F Skinner, American psychologist (Skinner Box), born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania (d. 1990)
• 1906 Abraham Beame, (Mayor-D-NYC), NYC's 1st Jewish mayor
• 1906 Pavel P Parenago, Russian astronomer
• 1911 Alfonso García Robles, Mexican diplomat and Nobel laureate (d. 1991)
• 1914 William Baddeley, rector (St James's Piccadilly)
• 1915 Rudolf Kirchschläger, President of Austria (d. 2000)
• 1916 Pierre Messmer, PM (France)
• 1917 Dolf Verspoor, literary/interpreter (M Nijhoff Prize 1958)
• 1917 Peter Caddy, founder (Findhorn Community)
• 1918 Jack Barry, Lindenhurst NY, game show emcee (Joker's Wild)
• 1918 Donald Featherstone, British writer and wargamer
• 1920 Douglas G Chapman, biomathematical statistician
• 1921 Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, Senegal, director general (UNESCO)
• 1922 Arnold Burgen, college president (Academia Europaea)
• 1922 Doug Barnard Jr, (Rep-D-GA, 1977- )
• 1923 Shaukat Siddiqui, Pakistani Author, Journalist and Political Activist (d. 2006)
• 1924 Hermann Guggiari, Paraguay, engineer and sculptor (Rejas, NNUU)(d.2012)
• 1925 John D Erlichman, Politician (Nixon aide, Watergate)
• 1928 Anthony Blond, British publisher (The Publishing Game, Book Book), born in Sale, Cheshire (d. 2008)
• 1931 David Montgomery, chairman (British Forestry Commission)
• 1931 John Rae, British educator (Conscience & Politics)
• 1933 David James Moore, educationalist
• 1933 Alexander Gorodnitsky, Russian geologist and poet
• 1934 Eric Hebborn, artist/faker
• 1934 Marion Conti, arch bishop (Aberdeen England)
• 1934 Willie Brown, American politician
• 1934 David Malouf, Australian author
• 1937 Elizabeth Gille, writer translator/editor
• 1937 Mark Saville, QC, British high court judge
• 1938 Frans J. van der Heijden, Dutch politician (CDA)
• 1938 Sergei Petrovich Novikov, Russian Mathematician, Fields Medalist

• 1939 Earl of Seafield, [Ginger], English large landowner
• 1940 Gianpiero Moretti, steering wheel designer (Momo), born in Milan, Italy (d. 2012)
• 1943 Gerard Malanga, American poet and photographer
• 1943 Naima Neidre, Estonian graphic artist
• 1945 Larry Combest, (Rep-R-TX, 1985- )
• 1945 Tim Yeo, British MP/under-sect (State of Environment)
• 1945 Henry Bartholomay, American fighter pilot
• 1947 John Eastburn Boswell, medievalist
• 1948 Pamela Sargent, American sci-fi author (Venus of Dreams, Cloned Lives)
• 1951 Curt Smith, American author and media host
• 1954 Liana Kanelli, Greek journalist and politician
• 1956 Phillip Oppenhein, British MP
• 1957 David Foster, Australian woodchopper
• 1969 Thang Thanh Nguyen, Soc Trang Vietnam, murderer (FBI Most Wanted)
• 1969 Mannie Fresh, American producer
• 1971 Touré, American writer
• 1971 Chad Michaels, American drag queen and Cher impersonator (RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars winner), born in San Diego, California
• 1973 Christopher Heinz, American businessman; son of Teresa Heinz
• 1974 Andrzej Pilipiuk, Polish writer
• 1984 Justine Ezarik, American Internet personality

• 1963 Sikkim crown prince Paldan Thondup Namgyal marries Hope Cooke
• 1993 Talk show host Morton Downey Jr (59) weds producer Lori Krebs (29) in Bellmore, New York

• 687 St. Cuthbert, patron saint of Northumbria (b. c. 634).
• 842 Alfonso II the Chaste, king of Asturia (791-842), dies
• 1191 Clement III, [Paolo Scolari], Pope (1187-91, 3rd crusades), dies
• 1239 Hermann von Salza, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (c. 1179)
• 1351 Mohammed ibn-Tughluq, sultan of Delhi India, dies
• 1393 Johannes Nepomucenus, [Jan Nepomucky], Czech saint, killed
• 1413 Henry IV of England, King of England and Lord of Ireland (1399-1413), dies at 45
• 1501 Jean Carondelet, lawyer/chancellor of Burgundy (1480-96), dies at 72
• 1531 Sicke Freerks/Frericx, [Cutter], Dutch anabaptist, beheaded
• 1549 Thomas Seymour of Sudely, English Lord Admiral, beheaded

• 1586 Richard Maitland, Scottish statesman and historian (b. 1496)
• 1617 Franciscus Aguilon, physicist/theologist/mathematician, dies at 50
• 1619 Matthias II, Holy Roman Catholic emperor (1611-19), dies
• 1646 Matthew Vossius, historian (Annales Holland Zelandiaeque), dies at 35
• 1673 Augustyn Kordecki, Polish prior (b. 1603)
• 1703 Johann Kunckel/Kunkel, German alchemist/ambassador to Sweden, dies
• 1732 Johann Ernst Hanxleden, German philologist (b. 1681)
• 1746 Nicolas de Largillière, French painter (b. 1656)
• 1751 Frederick Louis, English prince of Wales and son of George II, dies at 44
• 1767 Firmin Abauzit, French huguenot/scholar, dies at 87
• 1780 Sir Benjamin Truman - English brewer (b. 1699/1700)
• 1793 William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish judge and politician (b. 1705)
• 1835 Louis-Leopold Robert, French painter (b. 1794)
• 1848 Abraham des Amorie van der Hoeven, Dutch theologist/poet, dies at 27
• 1855 Joseph Aspdin, English mason and inventor (b. 1788)
• 1865 Keisuke Yamanami, Japanese samurai (b. 1833)
• 1875 John Mitchel, Irish nationalist (Jail Journal), dies at 59
• 1878 Julius Robert von Mayer, German physician and physicist (b. 1814)
• 1890 Alexander F. Mozhaiski, Russian aviation pioneer, dies at 65
• 1894 Lajos Kossuth, Governor-President of Hungary (1849), dies at 91
• 1897 Apollon Maykov, Russian poet, dies at 76
• 1899 Martha M Place, American murderer who becomes 1st woman to be executed in an electric chair, dies at 49
• 1899 Franz Ritter von Hauer, Austrian geologist, dies at 77
• 1910 Nadar [Félix Tournachon], French photographer, dies at 89
• 1913 Song Jiao-ren, leader Chinese Guomindang-Party, dies
• 1916 Ota Benga, Congolese pygmy (b. 1884)
• 1918 Lewis A. Grant, American Civil War General (b. 1828)
• 1920 Venustiano Carranza, president Mexico (1915-20), murdered at 60
• 1925 George N Curzon, British Foreign minister (1919-22), dies at 66
• 1929 Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France (WWI), dies at 77
• 1931 Hermann Müller, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
• 1932 Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov, Russian biologist (artificial insemination of animals), dies at 61
• 1933 Giuseppe [Joe] Zangara, electrocuted for assassination attempt on FDR
• 1934 Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Queen consort of William and Regent of the Netherlands, dies at 76
• 1940 Alfred Ploetz, German physician, biologist, and eugenicist (b. 1860)
• 1941 D A van den Bosch, anti-nazi clergyman (Amersfoort Camp), dies
• 1950 Walter Eucken, German economist, dies at 59
• 1953 Graciliano Ramos, Brazilian author (Vidas Secas), dies at 60
• 1962 C. Wright Mills, American sociologist and writer (The Power Elite), dies at 45

• 1963 Karl Otten, German Expressionist writer, dies at 73

• 1967 A J F Moody, 1st US Army General to die in Vietnam
• 1968 Carl T Dreyer, Danish director (Passion of Jeanne d'Arc), dies
• 1969 Henri Longchambon, French politician, dies at 72
• 1972 Jan Engelman, Dutch poet and art critic (At the Front), dies at 71
• 1974 [Lavinia] Marian Fleming Poe, African American advocate in Virginia, dies at 83
• 1979 Mino Pecorelli, Italian journalist, shot dead in Rome at 50
• 1982 Hendrik L van Beek, Dutch vice-admiral, dies at 52
• 1983 Ivan Vinogradov, Russian mathematician (analytic number theory), dies at 91
• 1990 Jannetje Visser-Roosendaal, Dutch writer, dies at 90
• 1991 Conor Clapton, Eric Clapton's son, falls out of 53rd floor window at 5
• 1993 Claudia Yeltsin, mother of Russian president Yeltsin, dies at 85
• 1993 Jonathan Ball, English youngster, killed by IRA at 3
• 1995 Rachida Hammadi, Algerian TV journalist, murdered at 32
• 1995 Sidney Kingsley, US playwright (Pulitzer prize 1934), dies at 88
• 1995 James Kilfedder, Northern Ireland unionist politician, dies at 66
• 1996 Claude Bourdet, human rights activist/journalist, dies at 86
• 1996 Victor Zorza, journalist/Russian specialist, dies at 71
• 1997 Carlo Fassi, figure skating coach (Fleming, Hamill), dies at 67
• 1997 Grace Hefner, mother of Hugh Hefner (Playboy), dies at 101
• 1999 Patrick Heron, British abstract painter, dies at 79
• 2004 Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (b. 1909)
• 2004 Pierre Sévigny, Canadian military officer and politician, dies at 86
• 2007 Gilbert E. Patterson, presiding bishop of COGIC (b. 1939)
• 2007 Hawa Yakubu, Ghanaian politician (b. 1948)
• 2007 Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraqi politician (b. 1938)
• 2010 Liz Carpenter, American feminist writer (b. 1920)
• 2010 Stewart Udall, American politician, environmentalist (b. 1920)
• 2010 Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepalese politician (b. 1925)
• 2012 Jim Stynes, Irish Australian rules footballer, dies from cancer at 45
• 2013 James Herbert, British horror writer, dies at 69

• 2015 Robert Kastenmeier, American politician (Rep-D-WI, 1959-91), dies at 91
• 2016 Anker Jørgensen, Danish politician, Prime Minister of Denmark (1972-3, 75-82), dies at 93
• 2017 David Rockefeller, American CEO (Chase Manhattan Bank) and philanthropist, dies at 101
• 2017 George Weinberg, American psychotherapist (coined "homophobia"), dies at 87
• 2017 Leticia Ramos-Shahani, Filipino Senator, lawmaker and womens rights activist who led the drafting of the international women’s bill of rights, dies of colon cancer at 87

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